The progress in understanding and modeling the mechanical behavior of aggregating suspensions pales in comparison to their importance and ubiquity in daily life and industrial processes. Some of the common examples include paint, cement, ink, mud, and biological materials like blood. These materials are made of particles suspended in a liquid formulation (which itself may be a complex fluid) and exhibit distinctive mechanical behavior as a result.
It is safe to say that aggregating suspensions are complex materials — their mechanical response is predominantly viscoelastic, and their rheological behavior (e.g., viscosity, modulus) depends not only on how fast they are being deformed but also on how they were deformed in the past (flow history). Their micro- and meso-scale structures underlie much of their complex mechanical and flow behavior. When allowed to sit for a long time, suspensions of aggregating particles tend to form fractal structures that can grow into networks and break when subjected to flow. In many instances, these fractal structures give rise to a yield stress that must be overcome by breaking the agglomerates mechanically before the material can...
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